Re: [ontolog-forum] intangibles (was RE: Why most classifications are fu

[sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear Matthew,

The word 'law' is a generic term for a wide range of propositions that could also be called axioms, constraints,  or requirements.

> MW: I don't see how a plan is a set of laws. A plan is a set of actions
> (i.e. spatio-temporal extents, not laws).

 
The execution of a plan creates a sequence of  actions.  But the plan itself is the specification of a goal to be achieved and a proposed method for achieving that goal.

Most plans, as even the mouse knows, "gang oft agley."  Very often, they are not realized as a sequence of actions, or that sequence doesn't terminate in the desired goal.

The desired goal can be called a possible world.  But more accurately, it is a desired region of the actual world at some time in the future.  The specifications of the plan could be called axioms, constraints, or laws.

The laws can be very tentative.  But the critical point that distinguishes laws from the facts is that the laws are constraints on the way a sequence of actions may, can, or must result in some observable facts.  If that sequence is what somebody had intended in order to achieve some goal, then it can be called the execution of a plan.

John

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